New report: obesity adds to global warming

A new report by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, writing in the journal Lancet, has concluded what might be obvious when you add up the numbers, that the growing rate of world obesity is adding to global warming:

Obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school's researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday.

At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese. The World Health Organization projects by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

The report established that the obese require 1,680 calories per day for normal energy and an additional 1,280 calories for activities per day. That is 18 percent greater than those at normal healthy weight and impacts the environment through an addition need for agriculture (source for twenty percent of greenhouse gases) and transportation, as the obese drive more than their healthier counterparts.

The report concludes that efforts must be made to promote a healthier lifestyle worldwide, as obesity is not only important to the cost of health care and quality of life, but as a factor in the cost of food and the health of the environment.